Persian Huutiug Scene, King and Attendants. (Rock Sculpture at Tahkt-i-Bostan.)
PERSIA
979
PERSIA
itais, shafts, etc., of beautiful workmanship. The pil- lars are arranged in four divisions — a central group six deep every way, aa advanced body of twelve in two ranks, and the same number flanking the centre (Sir R. K. Porter). The principal apartments are adorned with sculptures and bass-reliefs, such as the king on his throne and liis courtiers around him, with processions of warriors, captives, and bearers of tribute. These sculp- tures, man}' of them of the period of Darius and Xerxes, verif}' the descriptions of Herodotus and Xenophon. The royal pleasure-gardens and hunting-grounds were named 01~lQ, in Greek irapaCiiinoc. The original term is an old Eastern one, and it is vain to seek for a Greek derivation. Tlie kings were passionatelj' fond of hunt- ing, and, as exhibited on tlie rock sculptures, seem to have followed the pastime in a truly Eastern manner. The soldiers were armed with bows and short spears, and protected with small helmets on their heads, and steel - scaled tunics on their bodies. In war they fought bravely, but without discipline, generally gain- ing their victories by the vigor of their first attack ; if they were strenuous!}' resisted, they soon flagged ; and if they suffered a repulse, all order was at once lost, and the retreat speedily became a rout. The old Persian dress — tight and close-fitting — was superseded
Persiiiu Warriors. (From the Persepolitau ISIoniiinent
under Cyrus by the more flowing Median vestments ; and on the Persepolitau monuments the Persians ap- pear "in long robes, with their hair floating behind."
Persian Costumes.
1, Ancient Persian dress. 2, Median dress.
The Persians were a people of lively and impressil)le minds, brave and impetuous in war, witty, passionate, for Orientals truthful, not without some spirit of gen- erosity, and of more intellectual capacity than the gen- erality of Asiatics. Their faults were vanity, impul- siveness, a want of perseverance and solidity, and an almost slavish spirit of sycophancy and servility towards their lords. In the times anterior to Cyrus they were noted for the simplicity of their habits, which offered a strong contrast to the luxuriousness of the Medes : but from the date of the Median over-
throw this simplicity began to decline; and it was not very long before their manners became as soft and ef- eminate as tho-e of any of the conquered peoples.
3. LanguiKje. — The spoken language of the ancient Persians was closely akin to tlie Sanscrit, or ancient language of India (see Scliultz, llandbitch der Persischen Sprache, Elbing, 18G3, 8vo). We find it in its earliest stage iu tlie Zendavesta — the sacred book of the whole Aryan race, where, however, it is corrupted by a large ad- mixture of later forms. The inscriptions of the Achffi- menian kings give us the language in its second stage, and, being free from these later additions, are of the great- est importance towards determiniug what was primitive, and what more recent in this type of speech. The ear- liest form of the written characters was the cuneiform (([.v.). Modern Persian is a degenerate representative, being a motley idiom largely impregnated with Arabic; still, however, both in its grammar and its vocabulary, it is mainly Aryan ; and, historically, it must be regarded as the continuation of the ancient tongue, just as Italian is of Latin, and modern of ancient Greek (see Adelung, Mit/iridaf. i, '255 sq. ; Frank. Be Persidis Linrjua ei Geiiio [Norimb. 1809] ; Wahl, Gesck. d. Moi-r/enland. Sjjrache II. Literutur, p. 129 sq. ; Lassen, in the ZeitschriJ't f. die Kunde des Morgenlandes.W. iii, 488 sq.).
4. Relir/ion. — The religion which the Persians brought with them into Persia I'ropcr seems to have been of a very simple character, differing from natu- ral religion in little, except that it was deeply taint- ed with dualism. Like the other Aryans, the Per- sians worshipped one Supreme God, whom they called Aura-mazda (Oromasdes) — a term signifying (as is believed) '• the Great Giver of Life." From Oromasdes came all blessings — " he gave the earth, he gave the heavens, he gave mankind, he gave life to mankind" (Inscriptions, ;)«5Sim) — he settled the Persian kings upon their thrones, strengthened them, ... established them, and granted them victory over all their enemies. The royal inscriptions rarely men- tion any other god. Occasionally, however, they indicate a slight and modified polytheism. Oromasdes is " the chief of the gods," so that there arc other gods besides him ; and the highest of these is evidently Mithra (q. v.), who is sometimes invoked to protect the monarch, and is beyond a doubt identical with "the sun." To the worship of the sun as Mithra was proba- bly attached, as in India, the worship of the moon, un- der the name of Homa, as the third greatest god. En- tirely separate from these — their active resister and antagonist — was Ahriman (Arimanius), "the Death- dealing" — the powerful, and (probably) self-existing Evil Spirit, from whom war, disease, frost, hail, poverty, sin, death, and all other evils, had their origin. Ahri- man was Satan, carried to an extreme — believed to have an existence of his own, and a real power of resisting and defying God. Aliriman could create spirits, and as the beneficent Auramazda had surrounded himself with good angels, who were the ministers of his mercies to- wards mankind, so Ahriman had surrounded himself with evil spirits, to carry out his malevolent purposes. Worship was confined to Auramazda and his good rpir- its ; Ahriman and his daemons were not worshi))ped, but only hated and feared. See Oujiuzd.